A stiff flour pudding, often with dried fruit, boiled in a cloth bag, or steamed.
Later on, all the tinned meat came to an end, likewise the potatoes, and we lived on salt meat, biscuit, and duff; this fare was served out to all the messes on board, and we, I was going to say, saloon-folk, fared no better than the fo'castle hands.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 196:
The storekeeper had sent them an unbroken case of canned plum pudding, and probably by this time he was wondering what had become of that blanky case of duff.1901, Henry Lawson, short story The Ghosts of Many Christmases, published in Children of the Bush http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7065
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Who bravely stuff Themselves with Duff, May laugh at Doctor's bills.1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 87:
Dessert is as substantial as the main course, and none more so than the absolute favorite, guava duff.2000, Robert Barlas, Bahamas, page 118:
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A pudding-style dessert, especially one made with plums or (in the Bahamas) guavas.
They must live on sea food—a deal more of salt beef, pork, beans, and hard tack is than of any thing else, but of the food at sea well as in port it may here be said that it is ample in quantity and good enough anybody, though by no means all strawberry shortcake and cream or plum duff.1891, John R. Spears, “The Life of a Naval Apprentice”, in The Chautauquan, volume 13:
With Christmas well on its way let's take a look at a modern version of an old favourite dessert more often than not reserved for the day we celebrate the birth of Christ: plum duff. It is just as well Christmas falls during the summer school holidays as a nipper this allowed me to be at my grandmother's home when the true traditional plum duff was made.2009, Graham Hawkes, Plum duff updated:
Why do I always get a shopping trolley with duff wheels?
From its surface, he insisted, plain food became ambrosia, water nectar, and the duffest dope would blow your mind.1996, Catherine Merriman, State of Desire, page 155:
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The band developed its sound, shamblingly at first, on the road, in an era before thousands of blog or YouTube users could form an opinion of a band based on some MySpace demos and a duff early gig in Tacoma.2008 May 18, R J Smith, “Death Cab Is Up for the Long Haul”, in New York Times:
All the other parts were played by a gallery of Dickensian character actors, including Thorley Walters, Francis Matthews and, yes, Michael Ripper, who lent gravitas to the duffest dialogue lines.2009, Christopher Fowler, Paperboy, page 225:
Etymology Originally thieves' slang; probably a back-formation from duffer.
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Obsolete, Slang To disguise something to make it look new.
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Obsolete, Slang To sell spurious goods, often under pretence of their being stolen or smuggled.
A person once taken-in by smuggled handkerchiefs, or anything, won’t deal with a hawker again, even though there’s no deception. But ‘duffing,’ and all that is going down fast, and I wish it was gone altogether.1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:
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Australia To alter the branding of stolen cattle; to steal cattle.
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Golf, Hobbies, Lifestyle, SportsUS To hit the ground behind the ball.
British Columbia, Northwestern, Scotland, US Decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor.
Forest fires have often been started from wantonness; for the sake of making a big blaze, fires will be carelessly left by guides, or will be smouldering in the duff,* where it will burn for weeks. I have seen the smoke from fires in the duff even after the snow has fallen. * Local term for the vegetable growth covering the forest ground of the Adirondacks. under the spruce trees, the falling needles accumulate to considerable depth, forming the "spruce duff," a peculiar and interesting variety of forest humus.1886, Annual Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York:
These methods also make it possible for the forest officer to describe and to record his observations in precise terms such as “6% percent duff moisture” rather than in generalities such as “pretty dry duff.”1935, "New Equipment for Obtaining Host Material for the Mass Production of Trichogramma Minutum, an Egg Parasite of Various Insect Pests" by Herbert Spencer, Luther Brown, Arthur M. Phillips (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
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Depth of litter and duff under the crown of each tree was measured at a point that appeared to represent average depth. Bulk samples of litter (including duff) were taken under four pinyons and three junipers, and ovendried.1979, "Estimating pinyon and juniper fuel and biomass from aerial photographs" by Richard O. Meeuwig, Elwood LaVern Miller, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station (USDA Forest Service)
1991, "Woody Fuel and Duff Consumption by Prescribed Fire in Northern Idaho Mixed Conifer Logging Slash" from the U.S. Department of Agriculture The moisture content of the deep pockets of rotten wood was much greater than of the litter-derived duff layer.
Out under the trees, some rangers had found enough duff and dry wood to start a fire beneath a slanting ridge of slate.1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 366:
The underfooting is mostly duff and sand, through alternating forest and meadow.2006, Kathy Morey, Mike White, Stacey Corless, Sierra South: Backcountry Trips in Californias Sierra Nevada, page 250:
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Coal dust, especially that left after screening or combined with other small, unsaleable bits of coal.
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Fine and dry coal in small pieces, usually anthracite.
The great bulk of the coal burnt under our boilers is duff of a very small size, and a mixed coal of duff, peas, and small nuts.1917, William Henry Fowler, The Mechanical Engineer: